


Circumbinary

by Hazama_d20



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Eternal Trio - Freeform, F/M, M/M, Polyamory, Sam knows THINGS, Tucker figures things out, Tucker is confused, Tucker receives psychic damage from Yahoo!, space obsession au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:54:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29420424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hazama_d20/pseuds/Hazama_d20
Summary: A Circumbinary planet is a planet that circles around two stars, not just one.Tucker feels like he can relate. He doesn't realize that Sam and Danny can too.
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Sam Manson, Danny Fenton/Tucker Foley, Danny Fenton/Tucker Foley/Sam Manson, Tucker Foley/Sam Manson
Comments: 15
Kudos: 100





	Circumbinary

**Author's Note:**

  * For [UpsidedownUwU](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=UpsidedownUwU).



> This was written as part of a Valentine's day event on a Danny Phantom Discord server I'm a part of. What I was given was the option of writing a Sam/Danny/Tucker fic and a Space AU, which I thought was referring to the Space Obsession AU I've seen floating around but found out after I had written 90% of this was actually supposed to reference another AU entirely. Whoops.
> 
> Thanks to [aniura](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aniura) for beta reading!

* * *

Tucker poked at the remains of his food on his plate. His left side felt so warm. It bugged him that he was aware of a distinct lack of chill there. He looked up at Sam and Danny across the table. It had been a month or two since they had started dating. He was really happy for them. 

But man, did he miss guy-time with Danny. 

Everything they did now, Danny was next to Sam. Video games on the couch? Sam was in the middle. Lunch at the Nasty burger? Danny would slide in next to Sam as soon as she sat down. Movie night as a group? Danny would go in first. 

But it even went beyond that.

Arcade trip? Sam would come, even if she wasn't big on going to the arcade. All you can eat barbeque? Danny would invite Sam, despite her obviously not wanting to be there. Tech Expo?

Actually, scratch that last one. Sam was a godsend at that event. The Manson name can open some doors with some awesome tech behind them.

The point being, Tucker felt a bit like a heel. Sam and Danny were happy! His ship had set sail! He also made a little over a thousand dollars from people betting on Sam and Danny's relationship. He was happy for them, really. 

It just had been a really long time since he and Danny had hung out. 

"You okay?" 

The question made Tucker jump. He looked up at Sam. He wasn't sure when Danny had left. She was leaning over the table. Her lips pursed into a frown, and she looked up at him through dark mascara. A lump formed in his throat as he realized he couldn't help but notice how striking her eyes looked. Her eyes were slightly wide in concern, emphasized more by her eye shadow, which made her eyes pop out more. Her lips, painted black, pursed as she waited for a response. 

Tucker shook his head. He  _ really  _ didn't want to notice things like that about his best friend's girlfriend. The last thing he wanted was to make the two of them uncomfortable. "Yeah, no! I'm fine!"

"Certainly don't look fine," Sam said quietly. "Are we bothering you?"

"No!" Tucker stated firmly (also loudly, if Sam glancing around the restaurant was any indication). "No! Trust me, that's not the issue!" 

Sam sensed weakness. "So there  _ is _ an issue."

Tucker shook his head. "I mean, okay, there is." He admitted. Less because he wanted to admit it, but more that Sam would push more if he didn't. "But it's not a big one, and it's definitely something you and Danny don't need to worry about."

Sam reached over and patted Tucker's hand. Her hand was hot. That surprised him. He expected it to be ice cold like Danny usually was. "I mean… just cause we don't need to doesn't mean we won't. You're our  _ friend _ , Tucker. That's what we do."

Tucker pulled his hand back and rubbed his neck. "I know. But that's exactly why I'm not bringing it up!" He held his arms out and indicated the restaurant. "We're here to have fun! That's what I was looking for here."

Sam's eyes brightened. "Alright, yeah, then, in that case, I'll tell Danny he's just projecting."

Tucker blinked as he processed that statement. "Danny?"

Some of Sam's cheer dimmed as she shrugged. "Yeah, he mentioned he was worried about you, and this…" she said, pointing between her and the empty seat. 

Tucker shook his head. "Yeah, it's fine."

* * *

Except it wasn't. 

* * *

Tucker wasn't sure when he noticed it happening. Maybe it was because of Sam mentioning it, or maybe it had just been building up for a while. But he noticed a pattern. 

Tucker, Sam, Danny. 

Whenever there were three of them, it was Sam in the middle. Danny seemed to keep her between the two of them. Tucker tried to imagine it was part of Danny's obsession; keeping Sam in the middle between the two of them would keep her safer. Tucker or Danny could take a hit for her in gallant chivalry. 

Except, Sam could, would, and DID do a better job when it came to fighting ghosts than Tucker. Tucker was a support man, the man in the chair, a force multiplier, and many other things he told himself when he felt he didn't bring a whole lot to the group. 

Which is why right now, Tucker was the one carrying Danny into Sam's house. Danny had been hurt. Tucker had fumbled with Sam's keys, but he had gotten the door open while Sam watched their backs in case Technus came back. 

"Get him in my room," Sam ordered. Tears were in her eyes, but they weren't falling yet. "I'll grab the first aid kit." There was a pause as she closed the door and locked it. "And new clothes." 

Tucker nodded. The ectoplasm burned, but it wasn't anything that he hadn't dealt with before. Danny, on the other hand, well…

Turned out when Technus said 'master of all technology' he meant it. How he replicated a Plasmius Maximus was beyond the three of them. Still, at least it wasn't perfect; Danny was holding onto himself as Phantom, but barely. 

He had to. 

Tucker wasn't sure why Sam wanted Danny upstairs in her room instead of the basement where they were less likely to be walked in on. Tucker carried Danny up the stairs, in a bridal style. 

He couldn't help it. He laughed at how easily he lugged his friend's body up the stairs. He thought back to when Sam had to train him for gym class – he could barely do a pull-up. "Man, if the us of two years ago saw us like this, what would they think?"

He looked down at the open wound in Danny's stomach. Technus had found a modern use for floppy disks and punched several holes in his best friend. The ectoplasm spilled down Tucker's shirt and over his pants. The fact that the ectoplasm had probably shorted out his tech in his pants wasn't even on his mind. 

Instead, the wound just spurred Tucker to move faster. He took the steps three at a time easily, something his freshman self could never have done, especially with Danny in his arms. In a moment, he was in front of Sam's room, and he was crossing the threshold with Danny. 

Immediately, Tucker realized why Sam wanted Danny in here. He laid Danny down on the rug in the middle of the floor, cradling his head. "Hey, Danny," he said gently, "Open your eyes for a moment."

Danny groaned. "Tucker?"

"Can you tell me about these stars?" he asked, pointing up at the glow in the dark stars glued to Sam's ceiling.

Danny's eyes snapped open, and Tucker breathed a sigh of relief as Danny's other obsession kicked in. He slowly changed from Danny Phantom, the protector, to Danny Phantom, the space lover. He didn't change much at first; just some freckles began to shine on his face. The freckles grew into stars, and lines connected them into constellations, a telltale sign he was connecting with his love of the stars. His hair also began to float as if underwater, or perhaps it'd be more apt to say like it wasn't bound by gravity. 

"Oh! Well, we based the stars off the positions they were on the night we started dating!" He began, rapidly becoming more animated as indulging in his obsession fed him and strengthened him. "Stars change positions throughout the year! Those stars up there that are blue? Those are the planets! Planets change positions more than anything else in the sky. That's why they're called planets! The name originally meant celestial wanderer. They were confusing to early astronomers because they didn't move the way people expected them to."

Danny continued to rant on the floor, completely ignorant of wounds in his stomach. Honestly, at the rate he was going, Tucker wondered if they'd even need the med kid. He chuckled as Danny explained everything about the sky pattern above them. Danny didn't show this part of him often. It was dangerous. The Guys in White could use this to try and control him, but right now, just the two of them, there was no danger. Except for maybe staining the rug Danny was bleeding on. 

Sam burst into the room and sat down next to the two of them. "Oh, thank god." She uttered, seeing Danny. 

"Hey, Sam!" Danny chirped. He was way too cheerful for someone lying in a pool of what was essentially his blood. "I was just telling Tucker about the stars!"

"That's good, Danny. I know you've been wanting to for a while now."

Tucker blinked, and looked up at Sam. That was news to him. Why didn't Danny tell him that? He'd been up for a night star gazing. Sam looked up at him with a soft smile. She pulled back her hair and clipped it out of her face, as she gave him a mild shrug. Tucker frowned. Did Danny want to talk about these stars in particular? He didn't understand why he wouldn't want to. It's not like it would have upset him. 

"Tucker? Tucker, are you listening?" 

Tucker turned toward Danny, who had a bit of a pout on his face. "Sorry, man, I got a little distracted. Can you start over again?"

Danny brightened. The constellations on his face twinkled as he smiled. "Oh, okay! I understand. Sam can be distracting when she puts her hair up."

Sam chortled, but both boys ignored her as she got a suture out of the med kid. 

"I was just talking about circumbinary planets! They're planets that orbit two stars! They're really cool! You'd love them! Tatooine would be one!"

Tucker smiled and squeezed Danny's shoulder. "A planet orbiting two stars, huh? Sounds like me!"

Danny tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

Tucker waved his free hand about. "Well, I'm hanging out with you and Sam! You two are together, and I'm watching you, kinda like stargazing."

The constellations on Danny's face dimmed. He winced as Sam worked on closing one of the open wounds. He looked down at her, and Tucker reached up and prevented him from looking. It always hurt more when he saw Sam working. 

Danny chewed on his lip for a moment before responding. "You're a star too, you know?"

Tucker blinked. So that's what people meant when they said something warmed their heart. He probably had a dopey grin on his face. "Yeah! You know it! Someday the world will too!"

Danny smiled before flinching again. "Ow."

Sam cleared her throat before giving Tucker a significant look. Tucker didn't let her bother him. Instead, he asked, "Hey, Danny? Can you tell me about black holes? They sound cool!"

The constellations lit up again. "They don't just  _ sound  _ cool. They  _ are  _ cool! They suck everything into them because of their gravity wells. They get those because they're super dense, which makes them basically a pit in gravitation space."

Sam chimed in. "Sounds like someone we know!"

Danny pouted. "I'm not that bad!"

Sam smiled and patted Danny's face, hand covered in ectoplasm. "That's cute." 

"I'm not!" 

Tucker poked Danny. "Come on, tell me a cool fact!"

"Oh! Well, everyone says that black holes don't let anything escape, but that's actually not true! They do release some mass and energy, which means over time, they'll eventually become less dense and vanish! Well, I say over time, but I mean like millions and millions of years. Clockwork would know how long it'd take, I should ask! OH! Do you think he'd show me one being created?"

Sam chuckled. "You know? You could ask. He does seem to like you a lot." Her statement punctuated by the closing of the first aid kit. "Alright, you're good for now."

Danny smiled and relaxed into Tucker's arms. "That's good. Can I keep talking about space?"

"Of course, man! I missed hearing you geek out about space!"

He really did.

* * *

That night, Tucker stared at his hands. Something was wrong. Nothing physically at least, but as he lay there in bed, he could feel a chill in his hands. He couldn't stop thinking about holding Danny earlier. Yes, his best friend was pretty banged up, probably the worst he had gotten in recent memory. But just the same, it had also been the first time in a long time that he and Danny had any physical contact. 

He missed that. 

Tucker blinked and slowly placed his hands on his chest. The heat from his own body was distracting, and not in a good way. He reached over and grabbed his old PDA. He and Clarice, the name for his PDA, had gone through a lot. She was a younger version of Ashley, the PDA that replaced the previous one, Emilia, who was stolen by Skulker. 

That was around the time that Sam had taken a picture of him and Danny cuddling on the ground. He and Danny both had made it explicit that they didn't want Sam spreading it around the school, but every time they saw it in Sam's scrapbook, they laughed over it. 

Sam wound up having a couple of versions of it in there: there was the first time at the zoo, another time Sam took a picture of Danny wrapping himself around Tucker's waist in the Spectre Speeder, and Sam particularly loved the one of Danny and Tucker curled up in the bed at the tech expo. Neither of them had bothered to change out of the cosplays they had worn for the day. So Sam had a picture of a personified PlayStation and Nintendo DS curled up in bed. 

Tucker was surprised that Danny had agreed to cosplay with him, but when he explained that he had dual forms, it made more sense. Danny always loved a good pun.

Tucker dropped his phone onto his face. "Ow…" he muttered to himself without much inflection. 

Was it weird that he kept thinking of the times he and Danny were touching each other? Was it weird that he missed it?

For the briefest of moments, he thought about talking about it to one of his friends. 

"Hey, Danny, is it weird that I miss touching you?" He voiced aloud. 

Like  _ that  _ would go over well. Even saying it was weird.

He shook his head. "Hey, Sam, last night, I realized something, I miss hugging your boyfriend." He laughed to himself. 

"Oh man, she'd kill me." Tucker shivered as she remembered the looks she gave Paulina or Valerie. They  _ always _ made him flinch, and he was never even the target. 

Tucker rubbed his face. "Jazz?" He immediately discarded that thought. "No way am I bringing it up to her. She'd have a field day..."

He picked up his PDA, opening up the internet. "Whelp! The internet has never failed me before!" He navigated to Yahoo! Answers and started writing out a question. 

_ Hey, I've been dealing with some stuff lately. My best friend recently started dating another one of my other best friends. He and I used to hang out a lot with the two of us, but now he's constantly bringing her over. It's fine! Like, it's a party every day! But like… I dunno. It's weird. It's not even like I miss hanging out with him, cause we still are, but like, I started keeping track, in our last fifteen times hanging out, he's kept his girlfriend between us.  _

_ Is it weird that I miss when we were next to each other?  _

He read the question multiple times. He looked over the text, trying to see if he could be more concise, or maybe explain himself more. 

"This is still weird," he said, hitting the post button. He dropped his phone to the side and took a deep breath. He'd check it in the morning. 

* * *

  
  


Tucker stared at his PDA over breakfast. The sausage and bacon were left untouched. He blinked away sleep from his eyes as if it'd change the response he was reading. After another moment of staring, he sighed and pinched his nose. 

_ You ever seen Brokeback Mountain, dude? I think it'll have some answers for you. Especially the camping scene. _

Tucker set down his PDA, and grabbed his phone, and dialed it. It rang three times and went to voicemail. He hung up and dialed again. 

"Tucker, I swear to god, Pariah, Clockwork, and every other ghost that can fuck you up, you better have a good reason for calling me at 7am."

Tucker breathed in deeply through his nose, then out of his mouth to try and calm himself. "Can I talk to you? Like after school?" Did his voice crack? It felt like his voice cracked.

"Tucker?" Sam asked, perking up. "Is something wrong?"

"No, no!" Tucker started, then stopped. "I mean… yes… listen, I just want to talk to you about something." He coughed. "Just you, I don't want to bother Danny about it." 

There was a pause on the other side. "Alright, sure. I can skip the Gay Straight Alliance club today. I'll see you after school." Sam said after a moment. "But Tucker? Whatever it is, I know Danny would be glad to help."

"Thanks, Sam, but I REALLY don't want to worry him." 

"Alright, well, see you then."

"See you," Tucker said. He sighed, pushed his food away from him, and banged his head against the table. Sam was gonna kill him, but after reading that, he welcomed it.

* * *

Tucker walked up Sam's steps and hesitated at the door. He sighed and placed his forehead against the door. His stomach turned, but it was better than it had been this morning. He had almost canceled this. Nerves had eaten away at him, and he had felt sick when he saw them this morning. He had waved at the two of them as he had approached, and they had smiled when they saw him.

But Danny had circled around, so Sam was once again between them. 

Tucker snapped out of his memories when the door clicked open. Sam leaned against the door, giving him plenty of room to walk by her. "Hey, Tucker, you want to come in? Or would you rather go for a walk?"

Tucker walked in. "How'd you know I was here?" 

Sam smiled at him. "Tucker, you've been standing out there for at LEAST two minutes."

"Oh." 

Sam patted him on the shoulder. "Come on, let's go up into my room."

Tucker followed her up the stairs. It was only the other day that he was carrying Danny up the stairs. 

He half expected himself to cringe at the memory, but… honestly? The three of them had gone through so much together that carrying Danny up the stairs bleeding out wasn't that terrifying. They all survived through worse.

This though? He was scared out of his mind. 

Sam opened the door, walked to the center of the room, and sat down on the rug that she had stitched Danny up on the other day. She crossed her legs and looked up at Tucker. "What's going on, Tucker?" 

"It's…" Tucker began. He floundered for a minute, trying to figure out how to say what he wanted to say. 

Sam let out a hum and laid out on the floor for a moment as she grabbed a book out from under her bed. "Take your time. It's okay."

Tucker opened and closed his mouth several times before he sat down on her bed. He sighed and ran his hand over his head, knocking his hat off his head. "I don't know how to say this…" he began. 

Sam carefully closed her book and gave him her full attention. 

He sighed. "This is really hard to say."

Sam let out a quiet hum. "It's about Danny, though, isn't it?" 

Tucker winced. "How did you know?"

"Intuition," Sam said, getting up and sitting on the bed next to Tucker. She tilted her head. "Are we too much? We’ve really been trying hard to not be annoying?"

Tucker jumped up. "No! It's not that at all!" he said as he began to pace. "No, the LAST thing I want is to put any strain on your guys' relationship! I've been happy to see you two FINALLY dating!" 

Sam let out a breath. "Good, good." She smiled brightly. "Okay, so my worst fear is off the table now." 

Tucker winced. "I…" he shook his head. "You were worried about that?"

Sam shrugged and grabbed her book again. "Definitely one of my top fears. When it comes to the three of us, making you uncomfortable or ruining our friendship is up there."

Tucker stared at her for a moment. 

She noticed him staring and put the book back down. "Tucker… what is this about?" 

Tucker noticed an edge of worry in her voice, and he winced. "I… I don't know how to say this…" He paused and grabbed his PDA and pulled up his post from yesterday, and handed his it over. 

Sam took it with a raised eyebrow and looked down at the page, shooting Tucker glances as she read through the post. She opened and closed her mouth a couple times and she took a long breath. "So have you watched Brokeback Mountain?"

Tucker felt his face heat up. "Sam! This is serious!"

Sam held up her hands. "Sorry, let me put it another way. Tucker, are you interested in Danny like  _ that _ ?" 

Tucker felt something in him twist. He  _ definitely _ didn't picture himself doing anything like that with Danny. "No!" 

Sam tapped the PDA with a perfectly manicured nail. "You have to admit, this sounds like it!"

Tucker shook his head. "I know! I know, but…"

Sam grabbed Tucker's hand. "Tucker, you don't have to explain anything you don't want to." She placed his PDA in his hand. "Let me ask another question…" She tapped a finger against her lips. "Would you be against grabbing dinner at the Brazilian steak house and going to a movie with Danny?"

"No?" Tucker responded, confused. "That's…. Kinda the exact opposite of my problem right now?" 

Sam leaned forward. "And what if it was… hmm… say Kwan?"

Tucker frowned. "Well… I mean, guess not? It would be weird if he asked me to do that."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, I don't see Kwan asking you out."

Tucker flinched. "But I'm not  _ gay _ !"

Sam shook her head. "I didn't say you were… but Tucker, does the word biromantic mean anything to you?"

Tucker opened his mouth to say no but then pulled up Google on his phone. He read off the first result. "A biromantic person is someone who is romantically attracted to multiple genders. A biromantic homosexual woman would be a woman who is attracted to both men and women, but only sexually attracted to other women." 

Sam nodded. "That's right. So a biromantic heterosexual man would want to do romantic things with both men and women, like perhaps cuddling, but only would want to do more… intimate… things with women." 

Tucker blinked and stared at Sam for a moment. She reached over and grabbed her book again. Tucker wasn't sure how long he stood there before his mouth began to function again. "I have no idea what to do with this information."

Sam looked up, but didn't close her book. "Tucker, do you trust me?"

"Of course!" Tucker blinked. He wasn't aware he had said that at first. The words spilled out of his mouth before he realized that he had been asked a question.

Sam pulled out her phone and dialed a number. "Hey!" she said brightly, "No, don't worry, it's nothing crazy, but you should come over. Now. Okay, bye!"

Tucker blinked. "Wait, Sam, did you just call DANNY?"

Sam put her book down. "Tucker, you trust me, right?"

Tucker bit his lip to prevent any words from spilling out, but he nodded.

Sam picked the book back up. "Then trust me." 

So he did. 

* * *

Danny walked in. 

He looked at Tucker and offered a pained smile. "Hey, Tucker!"

Tucker felt a lump form in his throat. "Hey Danny…" He got out quietly. 

Sam sat down on the rug in the center of the room. She patted two spots next to her. "Come on, guys, sit down." The two boys looked at each other and slowly sat down next to her. Sam held out her hands, grabbing Danny's hand and looking at Tucker. 

Tucker gingerly placed his hand in hers. 

Sam cleared her throat and gave the two of them a look. Danny raised an eyebrow, and Sam pointedly looked at Tucker's hand. 

Danny started blushing, and Tucker felt his own face heat up as well, but a moment later, the three of them were all holding hands. 

Sam let out a deep breath. "Okay, so you two are probably wondering why I'm having all of us sit down here and hold hands."

"The question did pop into my mind, yes," Danny quipped.

She looked him dead in the eye. "The three of us are holding some secrets, and it's causing problems." 

Tucker sucked in a breath, but the sound of Danny's teeth clicking shut distracted him. 

Danny recovered first. "Sam, they're secrets for a reason."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, they are, but I do know they're hurting us." She squeezed their hands. "But let me go first." She turned toward Tucker and said, "Tucker… I've had a bit of a crush on you for a while."

Tucker reeled back, but Sam's hand kept him in place. "What?" He looked at Danny, expecting him to look hurt, but instead, he was more shocked. He tore his eyes away from Danny and back at Sam. "Since WHEN?"

Sam shrugged. "For a while now," she said with a shrug. "You're dependable and trustworthy. C’mon, we literally went on a  _ date  _ earlier this year. When you've been through everything we've been, is it that surprising that I got a bit of a crush on you?" 

Tucker looked at Sam and Danny's hands, expecting Danny to pull away from Sam at that revelation. Instead, they looked tighter than ever. Danny let out a quiet "Oh... "at the revelation. 

Tucker turned toward Danny. "Oh? Really? That's all you're saying?"

Danny winced and turned away, he started to pull his hand out of Tucker's, but Sam chided him. "Ah ah ah!" 

Danny squeezed Tucker's hand and looked down at it. "I understand what she's saying."

Tucker tried to gesture with his hands, but it was a bit difficult when the two of them were holding onto him. "I mean, yeah, I get it, it makes sense, and I'm not going to lie, I feel a bit of the same way, but I'd-"

Danny looked at Sam. This time, he was chewing on his lip so hard Tucker thought it'd bleed. Sam turned to Tucker. "No, Tucker, he  _ gets  _ it."

Tucker blinked. What did she mean by that?

Sam rolled her eyes. "Clueless, the two of you." 

Tucker felt his jaw drop and turned toward Danny, who refused to meet his gaze. 

Sam continued talking. "It came up a while ago. Danny told me he felt bad about having a crush on you since he was dating me. I had to explain to him it was completely fine for him to have a crush."

Tucker snapped toward her. "What do you mean it's _ fine _ ?" He practically shouted.

Sam fixed him with a glare. "I mean that it's fine. I'm not  _ threatened  _ by you in any way. It's not like Danny is going to just drop me for you out of the blue."

Tucker felt his shoulders slump as he relaxed. "That makes sense, I guess."

Sam continued. "A relationship,  _ any relationship,  _ not just a romantic one, is built off communication. I trust Danny to come to me about any of these feelings like I did with him, and like we're doing now." To emphasize her point, she tapped both boy's hands against her knees. 

Tucker nodded. "Okay, yeah." She then gave him a look, and he felt his mouth dry up. "Uh… but…" 

"I don't want you hurting," Sam said quietly. 

Tucker took a deep breath. He faced so many ghosts, talking to Danny about this shouldn't be hard. "Danny… I've missed hanging out with you."

Danny frowned. "But we've been hanging out?"

Sam scoffed. "Really? You call hiding behind me at everything hanging out?" 

Danny winced and simultaneously blushed. 

Tucker blinked. "Wait,  _ that's  _ why you've been keeping Sam between us at all times?"

Danny tried pulling away. This time Sam and Tucker both wouldn't let him go. Danny rubbed his forehead with his hand. "Yeah… um… I like touching you." Danny said quietly. It was almost impossible to hear in the room, but Tucker heard it all the same.

Tucker looked down at the rug. He had to have been blushing like crazy. "Me too…" 

There was a moment of silence, but then Danny started pulling away. "I don't know what we're trying to do here." 

Sam yanked him back down. "All relationships are about communication. We're communicating."

Tucker turned toward Sam. "Yeah, but what are you trying to communicate here?"

Sam raised an eyebrow. "You two have crushes on each other, is it really not obvious?" Tucker tried to pull away, Danny let go, but Sam didn't. "Hey, hands together."

"Why?"

"I don't trust either of you two to not run away."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Sam, you know I can phase, right?"

"Yeah, but you won't."

Tucker gestured between the two of them. "But I don't want to get between the two of you!"

Sam tilted her head. "And who said you would be?"

The room went silent. Tucker held up a finger. "Sam, when Paulina got close to Danny, you looked like you were going to send her to the ghost zone the hard way."

Sam shrugged. "Oh, I wanted to." She tapped Tucker's chest with his own hand. "You, on the other hand. I trust you. I care about you. And I don't want you being hurt by our relationship."

Danny spoke up. "But what about us?"

Sam turned toward him. "It'd be exactly what we've been doing, but you're allowed to get cuddly with Tucker and not feel bad about it."

Danny hesitated. "Just cuddly?" He asked quietly.

Sam smiled. "He's biromantic, or at least I think so."

"Biromantic?" Danny repeated.

"I uh… I like the idea of dating you, but I'm not really into the whole... ummm…"

Danny blinked. "Oh, oh, okay."

Sam tapped Danny on his knee. "Are you okay with that?"

Danny nodded so quickly, Tucker thought his neck would crack. "Yeah! Of course, I uhh... " He blushed. 

Sam nodded. "We fulfill different desires in the relationship. That's fine and normal. It's like that for everyone."

Tucker looked at Sam. "Umm… what does this mean? For you and me, that is."

Sam looked between the two of them. "I think that is on Danny here," Sam began. "Danny, I understand if you'd rather me and Tucker not-"

"No!" Danny said, way too quickly. "I mean, uh... " he groaned and tried to put his head in his hands, but instead just pressed his forehead against the backs of their hands. "I…" He let out a deep breath. "I think it makes my obsession happy, the protection one."

Tucker glanced at Sam, who looked just as confused as he did. Apparently, neither of them expected that. 

Danny took a deep breath, and they both looked at him. "Guys… I'm fighting all the time. I don't know if… I don't know if I'll always be there." He looked up at the two of them. "The idea that you two have each other, even if I'm not there, makes me feel happier, like that you have someone else to rely on." 

Tucker slowly nodded, remembering the number of times Danny had been injured. "I understand that."

"Me too," Sam said quietly.

The room went silent again, but this time, it was peaceful. Tucker looked between the two of them. "So, what does this mean?"

"It means you finally have a girlfriend," Sam said, laughing. "You just had to get a boyfriend first." 

Tucker blushed and looked at Danny. "I can live with that."

Danny smiled brightly. "So what now?"

"Now?" Sam repeated before throwing the hand holding Danny's across Tucker. Danny let out a startled yelp as he was thrown across Tucker's lap. Sam then dove over Danny and tackled Tucker to the ground, sandwiching Danny between Tucker and her. "This seems good?" She breathed into Tucker's chest. 

Danny laughed and looked back at Tucker, still holding onto his hand. The chill from Danny's body seeped into him. He rotated around and changed hands so that he could then place a hand on Sam's hip. 

Tucker took his hand away from Danny and pulled him closer, so he was more parallel to the two of them. 

"Yeah, this seems good." 

  
  



End file.
